Xenophobic Ignorance

Woke up this morning, had to pick up my dad from a 7/11. The car had broken down while he was out getting his Sunday paper. Freak technical malfunction with the car's alarm system. As I'm sitting in my car watching the car get towed, an old gentleman who walked out of the store approached my dad and thought exchanged a few words with my dad, seemed like he was making a joke or something. When we got back, Dad mentioned the dialogue in an irritated tone. Apparently, this guy had made some smart ass remark along the lines of "That's what you get for buying a foreign car" in reference to my family Toyota Camry being towed away.

I don't know what this guy's history is or where the source or generation his discriminatory attitude came from, and I assume he meant no intended insult and was just trying (failing) to be humorous. None the less, I felt really incensed when I heard this. I almost blurted out what I was thinking right in front of my parents (which was along the lines of "what racist bullsh...") and I was downright offended. It's odd, I take pride in my heritage but usually I don't get angered by stuff like that (I'm not quick to anger at all), I'm not overly sensitive about political correctness, yet I feel like if I had been outside and standing alongside my dad at the time and had overheard this, I might have chewed this geezer out. Honestly, I can't see any situation where making such an ignorant statement to a stranger is in good taste.

(I know I haven't had a proper post for the last couple of months, I'll try and ameliorate that soon enough, and this is certainly not a positive way to start of a new year of posting, I just felt really compelled to write about this.)